Amy Tan, born in 1952, American author, whose novels depict the tensions between mothers and daughters as well as the relationship between Chinese American women and their immigrant parents. Influenced by the style of American author Louise Erdrich, Tan’s work has become emblematic of other American works of fiction that give particular attention to ethnicity, family history, and the articulation of female voices.

Born in Oakland, California, to parents who immigrated to the United States from China, Tan was educated at San Jose State University and the University of California at Berkeley. She worked as a consultant to programs for disabled children from 1976 to 1981 and as a reporter, editor, and freelance technical writer from 1981 to 1987.

Tan’s first novel, The Joy Luck Club (1989), examines the relationships between four Chinese-born women and their American-born daughters. Narrated in 16 stories, the book alternates the voices of the mothers with those of the daughters. The mothers’ stories, tinged with ghosts and superstitions, describe the women’s struggles in China against traditional female roles and family domination. The daughters’ tales are those of young professional women in the United States who strive for equality in their personal relationships and careers. The novel portrays the Chinese mothers’ difficulties in sharing their wisdom and experiences with their American daughters. The Joy Luck Club was made into a motion picture in 1993.

Tan’s second novel, The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991), focuses on a single mother-daughter relationship and describes the mother’s efforts to survive in China before and during World War II (1939-1945). The Hundred Secret Senses (1995) relates the conflicts between half-sisters, with some supernatural elements. In Tan’s fourth novel, The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001), a Chinese American woman traces her ailing mother’s past through a bundle of writings she has found. Tan departs from the Chinese American theme in Saving Fish from Drowning (2005), which recounts a tour of Myanmar by a group of American art-lovers. Tan has also written the children’s books The Moon Lady (1992) and The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994). In The Opposite of Fate (2003), a collection of essays, Tan describes her life as a writer.